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Speaker Cable Termination

Because I have owned Mag 3.6 for awhile I have opted to use bare wire at the speaker/amp terminals. Non-scientifically, it seemed to me that there was no need to introduce something into the signal path that was not necessary. I have used bare wire with Kimber 4TC for over 10 years. As I am looking to upgrade my speaker cable, it seems I now have to consider termination. I say all this to pose the question of termination vs non termination on speaker cable. Thoughts?
xagwell
newbee
4,767 posts
 
Bare wire is good but it will oxidize and its tough to clean all those individual wires :-). I prefer good spades which clean more easily or locking bananas in that order. FWIW.
kurt_tank
1,189 posts
 
I completely agree with Newbee.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
I prefere bare wires. It's not realy a brainer to maintain. Just clean them once in a while with the contact cleaner. The crimped termination can also oxidize with time and will need much larger effort to clean.
arni
313 posts
 
Frank at Signal Cable used offer and recommend his best speaker cable (Silver Resolution) with just bare wire with silver solder on the ends. For some reason he no longer offers/recommends that option on his website.
Your comment makes a lot of sense, but when I had unterminated 4TC in my system, I observed oxidation and "reterminated" the ends several times. However, following your line of thinking, the speaker termination that introduces the least amount "of something in the signal path" is probably the Eichmann's new "banana plugs." If you are looking at bananas vs. spades in general, I would agree with Newbee, as I also prefer spades.
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